


Live And Let Live (But Don't Let Go)

by found_the_good_things, one_time_i_jumped_off_a_cliff, T00GayToFunction



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), We Are The Tigers - Allen
Genre: F/F, chess is captain america, eva is hawkeye, kate is black widow, the angst trio was born, the discord came up with this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25017433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/found_the_good_things/pseuds/found_the_good_things, https://archiveofourown.org/users/one_time_i_jumped_off_a_cliff/pseuds/one_time_i_jumped_off_a_cliff, https://archiveofourown.org/users/T00GayToFunction/pseuds/T00GayToFunction
Summary: The Avengers have to get the infinity stones. There's no debate on that. The only problem? Someone has to die for the soul stone. And Eva's not ready to let go.
Relationships: Chess & Kate (We Are The Tigers), Kate/Eva Sanchez (We Are The Tigers)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21





	Live And Let Live (But Don't Let Go)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [musical_stan_first_human_later](https://archiveofourown.org/users/musical_stan_first_human_later/gifts).



> Our Tumblrs are thatboleyngirlreads, t00-gay-to-function, and one-time-i-jumped-off-a-cliff! Enjoy! Clarification for the blue hair line: the discord (aka Anne) is obsessed with blue-haired Kate, so when MCU Natasha dyes her hair blonde, Kate dyes it blue.

_ “Please, Eva, let me go. It’s the only way to save everyone else, you know it is.” _

_ Eva shakes her head vigorously, breaths coming quicker and quicker. She’s clinging to Kate’s hand so tightly, she can barely feel her fingers, and Kate's heart breaks a little more. She's scared to die, terrified, but she won't show it. For Eva's sake, she’ll be strong. _

_ "Let go," she repeats. _

_ "No. I can't. I won’t." A sob escapes Eva's lips and tears sting Kate's eyes along with the wind. _

_ "Eva, please." If she's going to die, there's something she needs to say first. "I love you, Eva. I love you  _ so _ much, more than anything. I've loved you for years. And I'm so, so sorry." She gives Eva's hand one last squeeze. She can feel her strength running out. "But you have to let me go." _

_ "No," Eva pleads, desperation overflowing in her breaking voice, but Kate's already twisting her hand out of Eva's grip and a second later, she’s falling. As Eva's scream echoes in her ears, her final thought is  _ thank God it wasn't you.

_ And then there's just a moment of pure, blinding pain before her world goes dark. _

As the adrenaline from the battle wears off and Cairo’s screaming rings in her head, Eva stands still. She draws in a shaky breath and lowers her bow from her shoulder with stiff muscles.  _ Is it over? Did we win? _

She watches, numb, as Thanos's army dissipates into thin air.

Her eyes scan the battlefield. She sees Cairo leaning against the rubble, Riley stationed at her side with Mattie standing close behind. Riley and Mattie are both crying, but there’s little smiles and Cairo is moving faintly, and despite the burns all along her side from the snap, it looks like she’s going to be okay.

Eva continues to survey the area, watching all the fighters sheath their weapons, and her heart sinks as she doesn't spot brown eyes, blue hair, and a dorky grin.

"Eva! We did it! We won!" 

A voice from behind draws her attention away from the scene. Clark, with his arm wrapped in a sling, runs up excitedly. His body is still big and green, and now that he's spent so long like that, Eva's not sure he'll ever be fully human again like he was before.

"Yeah, we did..." she replies, her voice hoarse and tired.

"What's wrong?" Clark picks up on her tone. "We did it! We got everyone back!" 

Eva's head hangs uselessly, and she stares at her combat boots. 

"Not everyone."

Realization slowly dawns on Clark's face as he realizes the implications of her response. 

"Oh, Eva..."

Eva lowers herself carefully into the wreckage and curls into herself. She feels Clark sit beside her and rest his free hand on her trembling shoulders.

"She's... really gone."

"I'm so sorry, Eva. Really." 

A heavy silence, the first of many, follows. Eva hugs herself tighter, and Clark sits quietly beside her, letting her process. They sit there for what could've been ten seconds or an eternity before Clark stands up.

"We should go get the others." 

"Yeah." Eva's voice sounds hollow even to herself.

Clark helps Eva up, and together they walk solemnly through the battlefield ravaged by a tyrant.

Chess is the first to spot them in the wreckage. "Eva! Clark! You're back!"

Chess jogs over, her cheery mood quickly fading as she sees them. Then, she asks the question.

"Where's Kate?"

It’s only a question, but it’s enough to break Eva fully. Her shoulders sag, and she falls to her knees. She hugs herself and shuts her eyes. Her mind plays back everything. The desperate struggle to keep Kate from falling, the moment when Kate let go of her, Kate's confession... Kate's body down below, broken and bloodied by the rocks. Eva can't stop crying.  _ She's gone. _

Chess kneels wordlessly next to her, tears pouring down her face as well, and Clark stands above them, keeping a silent guard against the rest of the world and giving them space to grieve. There are no sounds other than Eva's sobbing and Chess’s breath hitching. The heavy silence is becoming suffocating as the realization dawns that they couldn't save everyone. 

Now Chess sits on the couch of Cairo and Riley's lodge. She watches as the fire dances, focusing on each ember that flickers and dies. Chess was always the first to wake up and the last to sleep, except this time is different. This time, she’s too preoccupied to even think about sleep. She‘s still restless from the day’s events. 

Chess had really thought that it would work, that Kate would come back with everyone else they'd lost. But Kate still isn't here. And she is  _ never _ coming back.

And yet, it doesn’t even seem real, like at any second Kate will come waltzing through the front door with her trademark stupid jokes or sarcastic comments. But Eva had told them all what had happened on Vormir, and Chess believes her. Eva wouldn't lie about something as big as this.

" _ Fuck _ , Kate," Chess says to no one, biting back tears. "Why didn't it  _ work _ ?"

The only answer is the crackle of the fireplace.

"It was supposed to. You were supposed to come back, you were supposed to be okay,  _ I was supposed to see you again! _ " Chess feels a few tears roll down her cheeks, slow at first, but soon she was muffling sobs as she spoke. "But your stupid, self-sacrificing ass threw yourself off that stupid cliff for a stupid yellow rock." She pauses for a moment, her hand over her mouth. "Kate, what the hell am I supposed to do without you?"

She can almost  _ hear _ Kate's voice in her head, from the first time Kate showed her how to sneak onto the roof of Stark Tower.

_ If it wasn't for me, you'd never have any fun. _

Oh, God.

_ See you in a minute. _

Kate's last words before they turned on the time machine echo in her ears.

_ I didn't even get to say goodbye. _

Chess thoughts settle at last. She needs to see for herself what was left of Kate at Vormir.

The best way she can think of to get there is through one of Dr. Strange's portals, so she straps her shield on her back and strides through the labyrinth of halls Cairo’s built, not willing to take no for an answer.

She's Captain fucking America. She'll  _ make _ him take her.

  
  


Eva's laying wide awake on her bed in one of Cairo and Riley’s many,  _ many _ spare rooms when she hears someone walking through the halls. She slides out from under the covers and pads over to the door, slowly turning the handle until there’s enough space for her to quietly slip into the hall. She’s met with a red-eyed Chess, who jumps when she sees Eva. 

“Jesus, could you be any creepier?”

“Sorry. What are you doing?”

"I- I've gotta go say goodbye to Kate." Chess stands up straighter. "I'm going to Vormir."

"I'm coming with you," Eva says without thinking. "I've got stuff to say to her, too. Plus, you've never been there. I have."

Chess looks like she's going to argue, but then she sets her jaw and nods. “Fine. I’m going to get Dr. Strange, have him open a portal to get us there.”

Eva nods. “Okay. Um, do you know which way his room is?”

Chess fidgets uncomfortably, not willing to admit she had no real plan whatsoever. “I-“

"Looking for someone?"

Eva just about jumps through the ceiling, and she and Chess both whirl around to see Dr. Strange, wearing sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt, holding a mug that smells faintly of cinnamon.

Chess tries to regain her composure. “We need you to open a portal to Vormir. We have some unfinished business there.”

It kind of makes Eva want to cry again, hearing Kate,  _ her Katie _ , referred to as unfinished business, but she keeps it together. Barely.

Dr. Strange raises an eyebrow at the two of them and takes a sip of his drink. “Are you sure?”

Chess steels herself, “Yes, we’re sure. Open the portal, please.”

Dr. Strange shrugs and waves his hands around in some pattern Eva can’t be bothered to recognize and a glowing circle appears, ripping a hole in space just big enough for the two women to step through.

  
  


"Hey, um, I'm gonna hang back a bit, okay? Just for a moment."

Eva looks back at Chess. "You are?"

"Yeah, just want to… look around a bit, you know?" In reality, Chess is scared to see her best friend, the woman she considered her sister, broken at the bottom of a pit. "You go ahead, say what you have to say. I'll be there in a moment, I promise."

Eva studies her for a second but then keeps going, stumbling on a rock, and Chess takes a moment to be impressed.

She'd known that Kate loved Eva since before Kate knew it, and she was pretty sure Eva loved her back. For Eva to soldier on like that, knowing she was going to see the dead body of the woman she loved, was the bravest thing Chess had ever seen.

She looks around for a few minutes, telling herself that she can do this, then she starts up the path.

  
  
  


"Welcome, Eva Sanchez, daughter of Joseph."

Kate freezes, not an easy feat considering how cold she already is.

_ No. Not possible. _

She doesn't tear her gaze from the dried blood at the base of the cliff. Technically, according to the date on the fancy high-tech SHIELD watch that Cairo had insisted she take, she died nine years ago in this timeline, but she's not even going to start on that.

"Kate?" a familiar voice calls out behind her, small and weaker than normal, and _ this has to be a dream, right _ ? She fell asleep or something. She died again and this is the afterlife. Because there is no way that Eva Sanchez is standing at the arch marking the back of the ledge. There's no way Eva Sanchez is  _ here _ , on a desolate planet light-years away from Earth.

"This isn't funny, Red Skull," she says shakily, but the floating black cloak that had been her only company for hours doesn't respond.

“Katie…” The familiar voice breaks as it calls out again. Nobody else had ever heard that nickname. Nobody else was with them that late night in Budapest, when some drunk old guy they were following called Kate that.

Slowly, warily, she dares to turn around.

And apparently, miracles do happen, because Eva Sanchez is standing there, staring like Kate was a ghost - which in a way, she was. Miracles also probably happen because Kate isn't dead anymore, but that's a little  _ too _ much to think about.

Kate feels her heart beating faster and faster as Eva (is it really her? Can she trust anything she sees anymore? Is this just some elaborate trick her mind is playing on her to keep her sane?) walks towards her, her strides getting longer and quicker until she’s running towards Kate. She stops, inches away, hands fluttering above Kate’s shoulders, scared to touch for fear of shattering an illusion.

Slowly, slowly, Kate reaches up and cups Eva’s face, brushing her fingers against her jawline and  _ she’s touching her, Eva’s here, she’s real and here and you’re touching her- _

“I love you, too.” Eva stares at Kate. “Whether this is real or not, I love you too, Katie. I think I always have and I know I always will. I promise."

Eva's words break the spell that's settled over them, and the tears spill from Kate's eyes, freezing to ice before they even hit the rock below their feet. "Eva… you're here? For real? Because I'm not actually sure how long I've been alone for and it's entirely possible that I'm hallucinating right now-"

Eva cuts her off by pulling Kate close and tightening an arm around her waist and pressing her lips against Kate's in the messiest, most desperate kiss ever, but Kate doesn’t mind because it means Eva’s here and loves her. It means Kate’s not alone anymore.

Maybe it means she can go home.

“Yo, what the fuck?!” They both turn and see Chess, staring at them.

“Hey, that’s my line,” Eva jokes weakly.

"Kate!" Chess starts running towards them, and Kate pulls away from Eva just in time to catch her.

"Chess," she says softly, and Eva backs away to give them some breathing room. She's not the only one who's missed Kate, and she knows that, but her lips are tingling from the kiss and she already misses the feeling of holding her as tight as she can.

Chess pulls away and does a little pat-down of Kate, making sure she’s in one piece, before she pulls her in again and holds her for at least a minute. Kate's sobbing now and Chess is shaking and Eva is pinching herself to make sure this is real.

But they’re here. They’re together, and that’s what matters. When Kate latches back onto Eva for the walk back to the portal, when she quietly breathes  _ don’t let me go _ , Eva’s happy to oblige.

It's a nice change of pace from the other memories of these cliffs, of “please, Eva, let me go" and glowing yellow gems.

  
  
  


When they come through the portal back into the compound, Dr. Strange goes right back into a fighting stance before they explain what happened, or at least what they think happened. He runs off, muttering about writing that down, and Kate and Eva curl up together on the couch while Chess goes to wake everyone else up.

Kate gets a bit of an interesting welcome back. She’s back under interesting circumstances, of course, but still. Cairo is still confined to a bed after her snap, and Riley and Mattie won't leave her side, but everyone else comes down when they hear Kate's name. It's a bit much, and Eva holds Kate a little tighter when everyone starts talking over each other.

After a few minutes, Chess tells everyone to "fuck off, she's had a long day," so they all go back upstairs and after a moment, Kate and Eva follow. They don't bother to change into PJs, just strip off the uncomfortable parts of their suits and crawl into bed, hanging onto each other for dear life.

Right before she drifts off, Kate looks up at Eva, tired and sore and happy.

“I love you, Eva.”

“I love you, too, Katie.”

Kate wriggles impossibly closer in Eva's embrace, and she can feel Kate’s blush pressed into her neck. "Can- can you maybe say it again? I've got to hear it more so I know this is real."

Eva presses a kiss to her forehead and does as Kate wishes. "I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you."

**Author's Note:**

> It wasn't mentioned in the fic but yes, cheer wives is Pepperony and yes, they have a kid.


End file.
